AROUND THE HEART IN 80 DAYS

Six

Blair wasn't joining them in the little chat, Jackie noted. She had politely excused herself, saying that whatever the discussion was about, it was something Rebecca had to do on her own.

Whatever the 'something' was.

It was good that it'd happened, she felt less intimidated by the smaller lady.

The waiter put down a small cup of ice cream in front of her. The same with Rebecca.

Jackie forgot what she had even ordered. With that curious unsettling in her stomach, overly eager to know what was up.
And she wondered why an office cafeteria had ice cream. Immediately, she doubted the quality.

Could she get better quality ice cream if they knew their Sales President was her step brother? Or worse quality.

"So..." Rebecca started and Jackie looked up from her cup. "I want you to bear in mind, first, that it's not a scary thing. What I'm about to do."

Warning bells were beginning to ring as she straightened up to hear Rebecca more.

"See, I have a brother, Edrei. Very charming man. Really wonderful."

Knowing it was rude to interrupt but wanting to also know if she had heard right, she quizzed. "Edrei?"

Rebecca smiled. "Does it sound strange? Our parents are very biblical. And some time ago, he fell in love with this equally amazing German girl, Mariana. She's from Lübeck, in that Schleswig-Holstein part. They were a total match made in heaven," then she added with a solemn sigh, "my brother was absolutely lost in her."

Jacqueline smirked. Question marks were popping all around her head.

"But then, she fell ill. Critically."

"Hope it wasn't cancer." Oof! She quickly regretted saying it.

The brunette smiled sadly. "Lucky guess. I think cancer is pretty popular, huh. Skin cancer. Oh well, she didn't make it. That was the saddest thing we must have come across."

Not knowing exactly what to say at that point, in case she further ruined a situation she knew nothing about and how it affected her accommodation, Jackie chose to show the usual sad expression one would show whenever the news of death struck.

"Edrei was the most broken of us all. Worse than her own family members. He became so withdrawn, so dreary, all that. At first, we thought it was grief. But a year passed, and another. And now, he wants to go to Germany forever. Because for some weird reason, he just has to live his whole life buried solemnly in her hometown."

"That's bad."

"And I've been thinking of how to stop him. His secretary is running out of time stalling his tickets. I immediately need some sort of distraction to keep him." She hadn't touched her dessert, her fingers drumming the table top, her back leaned far back to comfortably rest on the backrest of the wooden chair.

Her stance was making a statement. That at this point, one would have guessed the favour.

Jackie folded her arms uneasily and unfolded it again. "Distraction? Jesus."

"Believe me. You don't know how bad it is. He... he's the vice president for the sales department of this place. You might have heard of him. Garrett might have mentioned him. Both he and my brother vied for the position of the Sales President in the said department. His lost focus kicked him off that opportunity. Now he wants to quit in total. Leave me, leave his family, leave the winery. It's bad."

Jackie's eyes furrowed. "I'm not sure I know what to even say to that." She'd never had such an offer in her life. And she didn't think anybody ever had.
If she guessed right that that was indeed the offer that was being proposed.